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This summer 40 Lafayette students will participate in the Landis Community Outreach Center’s Kids in the Community Camp, an extension of the after-school mentoring and tutoring program, Kids in the Community (KIC), August 21-24.
The camp was established in the ’95-’96 school year and last summer boasted over 90 children in attendance. The group took a trip to a local lake and participated in various activities on campus.
Students who will serve as camp leaders are: Samira Fowler ’07 (Dingmans Ferry, Pa.), a civil engineering major; Daniel Martini ’07 (Chappaqua, N.Y.), a double major in international affairs and French; Joanna Norelli ’08 (Langhorne, Pa.), a mathematics major; Eugene Netupsky ’08 (New York, N.Y.), an English and philosophy double major; and Alberto Luna ’08 (Bronx, N.Y.).
“Many of the Lafayette students come from upper/middle class families and have not been exposed to the lives other people live,” says Norelli. “It’s so easy to get caught up in our own lives and volunteering gives students a chance to think about what it would be like to see the world from another’s perspective.”
Fourteen additional Lafayette students will be hired to assist with the camp, and twenty first-year students will be recruited to take part as counselors and begin their college career engaged in the Easton community.
“The participation in the KIC after-school program and KIC Camp can be essential to contributing to a well-rounded college experience,” says Kirsten Rutkowski, AmeriCorps*VISTA volunteer and KIC adviser. “It is so important to become engaged in one’s community and involved in the world outside the classroom. Participation in the KIC program emphasizes this, while also serving a need as expressed by the local community for constructive activities for the youth of Easton.”
There are five KIC sites: Union, Jefferson, and Delaware Terrace public housing projects, and two community centers, Firth Youth Center in Phillipsburg, N.J. and Easton Area Community Center. The services take place Monday-Thursday and are coordinated by Norelli; Nate Cramer-Durning ’06 (Evanston, Ill.), who graduated with an A.B. in economics and business; Sarah Kahn ’06 (Wellesley, Mass.), who graduated with a B.S. in chemistry; Marquis Scholar and biology major Sarah Kolb ’07 (Berkley Heights, N.J.); and history major Nick Perretti ’07 (Springfield, N.J.).
“My involvement in community service, KIC, and the Landis Community Outreach Center has made my experience at Lafayette what it is,” explains Durning, who hopes to become a guidance counselor in a public school. “A year after graduating, I may not be able to tell you much about what I learned in class but I will be able to tell you what I learned from community service and how I grew as a person. I learned the importance of diversity, how each person has something to contribute, and that despite many differences between each other we can still relate positively.”
About 85 Lafayette students volunteered with the program over the course of this academic year and well over 100 children between the ages of four and 16 have participated in the many enrichment activities organized by the students.
KIC has given students, some of which have been participating since their Pre-Orientation Service Program, the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of less-fortunate youths.
“I have been participating in the KIC programs since my first week of school here,” notes Netupsky. “The main role we play is to provide these children with mentors, trying to raise their consciousness of the world around them, and encouraging them to be all they can be.”
There is one teenager, he recalls from the Jefferson program, who lives in an environment where attending college is not prevalent, like many teenagers in Easton.
“I take him up to the college every so often, but one day we spent the whole day walking around campus, playing basketball in the gym, and eating in Farinon,” says Netupsky. “Being in a college environment made him become very interested in the idea of going to college, and by the end of the day, he was asking me what it would take to get into college.”
KIC has also begun to take on a focus of community arts. During this semester’s Lafapalooza, the Landis Center’s annual weekend of service, about 20 volunteers and 15 children from the Union neighborhood painted the community room at the site, along with a mural of drawings the children in the program created of things that are important to them. The program is trying to incorporate expressive arts activities into its services, in addition to homework help and other academic activities.
“Volunteers have fun at KIC and they often forget about the other stresses of being a college student,” observes Kahn. “[Community service] is an active part of my week and I can’t imagine life without it. Going to see the kids at KIC and working with them gives me so much joy. My work at KIC has shown me that I want to be a teacher and continue to influence kids for the rest of my life.”
KIC was initiated by three class of ’97 students in 1995: Christy Seed, Jessica Wolfson, and Seth Brogadir, who were part of an AmeriCorps program through Pennsylvania Campus Compact called Pennsylvania Service Scholars. The three students were committed to 900 hours of service before graduation, paid minimally, and earned a post-service award for educational expenses.
Durning has been named to the dean’s list and is a member of the Omicron Delta Epsilon (economics) and Pi Mu Epsilon (mathematics) honor societies. He is a Big Brother for a 5th grader in Easton, an intramural sports referee and participant. In addition, he is a member of Holla Back, a voter education program; First Book, a Landis program dedicated to child literacy; Hillel Society; and Students for Social Justice.
Kahn is a recipient of the Levy Award from Hillel Society, and a member of the American Chemical Society.
Norelli is a Landis program coordinator, Lafapalooza volunteer, and the associate director for the Pre-Orientation Service Program. She is also a member of Alpha Phi sorority and a facility monitor at Kirby Sports Center.